How to Back Up Android Data to PC/Cloud

Last Updated on June 20, 2022 by Jack Robertson

For the Android phone in our hands, we should always back up its data to a computer or cloud. By doing so, our data on this Android phone, like music, photos and videos, contacts, call logs and SMS, apps, and all kinds of documents, will be safely stored. When you accidentally delete any of your Android data, the backup file is helpful to get your data back.

In this tutorial, methods for doing Android data backup will be listed. No matter what Android phone you’re using or which Android version it's running on, you can find a perfect way to back up any data on your Android.

Tip:

I will be using a OnePlus phone as the test device to show you all methods. There’re so many different brands and models of Android phones. The buttons and options I tap on my OnePlus may be different on your Android. Try to find the similar options on your phone.

Android Data Backup:

Method 1: Back Up Android Phone to Google
Method 2: Back Up Android Phone with Default Backup Service of Android
Method 3: Back Up Android Phone with A USB Cable
Method 4: Back Up Android Data to Cloud and Computer Selectively

Method 1: Back Up Android Phone to Google

First of all, we will try Google One on Android phones. It can do an auto-backup that saves all the important data to Google. For Android users, we can save up to 15GB of data for free to it including contacts, text messages, photos and videos, apps, etc.

Note:

Google Backup doesn’t save audio files like music and recordings. So, if you aim to save audio files on your Android, look at other methods.

Now, let’s see how to set up Google One on your Android phone.

First of all, launch Settings. Scroll down and tap Google. Sign in with your Google account there.

Next, it will prompt you to Turn on Google One to back up your Android data. Do it anyway.

After that, make sure the Backup by Google One option is on! And boom, Google will automatically back up your Android data when the phone is locked or has been charged for 2 hours. You can tap on Back Up Now to save data right away

Tip:

Turn off the Google backup option will erase all the current data saved on the cloud. So, if you’re not prepared, don’t turn it off.

Method 2: Back Up Android Phone with Default Backup Service of Android

Take my OnePlus phone as an example, I can use the OnePlus Cloud, the default backup service offered by OnePlus, to save my data.

To use it, I need to log in to my Oneplus account on this phone and then activate the cloud.

Go to Settings - Account, and finish the login. Then, tap on Cloud Service and turn it on. And done.

For all Android brands, like Samsung, Huawei, Oppo, Vivo, and Xiaomi, below are the names of their backup service as well as links.

Samsung: Samsung Cloud;
Huawei: Huawei Mobile Cloud;
XiaoMi/Redmi: Xiaomi Cloud;
Oppo: Oppo Cloud;
Realme: realme Cloud;
Vivo: ViVOCloud;
Sony: Sony Media Cloud.

For Google Pixel phones, Google Backup is the default backup service. Check Method 1.

Method 3: Back Up Android Phone to Computer with a USB cable

Android systems allow us to transfer data to a computer directly through a USB cable if we enable USB debugging.

Step 1 Sync Android to PC

Connect your Android to a computer with a USB cable. Now, open This PC on the computer and see if you can find a folder that’s named after your Android device.

If yes, check Step 2. If not, you need to enable USB debugging like this:

On your Android, launch the Settings app. Scroll down and tap the About Phone, About Device, or This Device option. Then find Build Number, tap 7 times to activate the Developer mode.

Now, back to the Settings app, go to System - Developer - USB Debugging, and enable it. Next, scroll down and hit Default USB configuration, choose File Transfer.

Step 2 Locate the target folders/files

Now, go back to This PC, double-tap the folder that is named after your Android device. Open Internal Storage.

You will see multiple folders listed on the window that contain different data on your Android.

DCIM/Pictures/Movies: Photos and Videos;
Documents: Ringtones, Word, PDF, Excel, and some other files;
Download: Stuff downloaded on the browser(s);
Music/Podcasts: Audio files;
WhatsApp/Wechat/Facebook: The account details and chatting history as well as attachments.

Step 3 Back up Android phone

Lastly, what you need to do is to open these folders. Find the files you need and copy them to the computer.

Method 4: Back Up Android Data to Cloud and Computer Selectively

On a phone, there’re so many different types of data, images, audio, app data, messages, etc. Maybe you don’t want to back up everything on your Android, but just those important ones. So, in this part, I will tell you how to back up specific data on your Android.

Back Up Photos/Videos/Music/Messages/Contacts on Android

First, we will try a third-party backup program - echoshare Android Data Backup.

echoshare Android Data Recovery is one of the leading icons of the Android backup tools. It supports saving multiple Android data to a computer, including Photos, Videos, Documents, WhatsApp data, Audio, SMS, Contacts, etc.

Most importantly, you can preview all the data and pick up the exact items that you want to back up. You can get rid of those needless ones.

For some private data, you can encrypt the backup file with a password that only you know. No one is able to peek into your privacy!

Now, download the app, and let’s start to back up your Android data selectively.

Step 1 Download, install and Launch this Android backup tool

Back up on Win Now Back up on Mac Now Back up on Win Now Back up on Mac Now

Step 2 Sync the Android phone to the program

Connect your Android phone to the computer with a USB cable. On the program’s interface, choose Android Data Backup & Restore - Device Data Backup to proceed.

Step 3 Set up the backup

Next, choose the types of data that you want to back up for. Keep them checked. You may tick the Encrypted Backup option to set a password to this backup.

Click Start.

Step 4 Back up Android data

The program will then prompt you to choose a folder on your computer as the destination folder of the backup file. Choose one and click OK.

Now, the program will start to back up the selected data to your computer. When done, you can go to the folder and find the backup file there.

Back Up Photos and Videos on Android

When photos and videos are the only files that matter, you can use Google Photos to back them up. It’s a cloud storage app that will save your Android image files to the cloud automatically.

Let’s use it to back up Android photos and videos with ease.

Step 1

Launch Google Play and search Google Photos. Install it. Launch the app and sign in with your Google account.

Step 2

Tap on your profile picture from the top right corner to open the settings panel. Tap Photos settings. Turn the Back up & sync option on.

Now, the app will start to back up all the items it finds on your Android Gallery app.

Back Up WhatsApp Data on Android to Computer

To back up every or just some of the WhatsApp conversations, try iCareFone WhatsApp Transfer. This is a professional WhatsApp data backup tool that you will never regret using.

With it, you can back up everything on your Android WhatsApp with one click. Text, audio, video, documents, and photos are all supported. Also, you can choose to backup WhatsApp data to another phone. So, if you want to switch to a new phone, this helps you transfer WhatsApp data easily.

One-click to back up WhatsApp on Android now.

Download and launch iCareFone WhatsApp Transfer.

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Choose WhatsApp from the main interface. Choose Backup. Hit Back Up Now to complete.

iCareFone WhatsApp Transfer will start to back up everything it can find on your Android WhatsApp. When it’s done, exit the program and unplug your phone.

FAQs

1How to back up photos on Android

You can download Google Photos on your Android phone and activate the Google Photos' auto-backup feature. Sign in to your Google account and go to Settings, tap Backup to activate that.

2How to back up Android contacts

On your Android, go to Settings - Google - Backup. There, make sure the Contacts option is on. Then, tap Back Up Now to back up your Android contacts to Google.